Sermon Tone Analysis

The Race - Illustration

Comparing.

For many of us we just cannot stop comparing.

We look at others.

What they are wearing.

What they look like.

Our seats on the airplane.

Fish that we caught.

Homes, cars, and now with social media, we compare lives.

But one thing I wonder… do we compare wise and foolish things?

I think so.

We make judgements in our hearts about what people do.

We will conclude, “you know what, that is one smart dude.”

Or we say, “you know what, I think that boy’s cheese slid off his cracker.”

Now here is the juxtaposition.

The comparison today… is wisdom better than foolishness?

The answer seems obvious… of course it is.

You ever what the why women live longer than men video?

Check this out.

Wisdom is so so soooo much better than foolishness.

But is it really?

Today we will look at the comparison and conclusion of the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes and see why he does not think so.

Heaven and Earth will pass away but His Word will never pass away.

The Juxtaposition

The Conclusion

The Equalizer

Hatred for Life

The Wisdom of Christ

The first thing we will uncover is the next part of the quest of the meaning of life.

Lets revisit this thing called wisdom and compare it to foolishness.

Second, we will explore his conclusion seeing wisdom as so much better than folly.

Third, we will see why in the end it really does not matter.

All thing will be equal.

Fourth, this conclusion leads to the preacher hating life itself.

And finally, we will see that life is precious when it is the life and life more abundant that Christ brings.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world can cause us to despair in life under the sun, it is the truth of the gospel and the power of the Spirit that will cause us to see the realities of heaven and the wonders of a life under the Son of God.

I.

The Juxtaposition

-The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

A comparison.

A. Qoheleth continues his search for the meaning of life.

All we have seen so far is failure upon failure.

He has looked closely at wisdom and pleasure, but refuses to stop asking the question “why?”

He does not stop but decides to take a closer look.

I’m gonna try harder.

B. He looked at wisdom.

For surely it would lead him to the answer.

Many of the great philosophers thought the same.

But he found that there are things that could not be straightened out.

And he could not count what he did not have.

Things he could not know cause they were just unknowable.

Einsyein had a similar revelation.

C.

He looked at pleasure.

Wisdom did not help, maybe self indulgence will have a different result.

He tried laughter, building extravagant homes and gardens, wine, women, and music, and denying himself nothing at all.

All he desired.

He had and experienced all that a man could desire.

It still did not satisfy.

Everything is still not Enough.

D. Just to make sure, I’m gonna once again look into wisdom and compare it to mad folly.

Madness and folly go together.

It is called a hendiadys.

Two words used as one.

Remember this is a moral term, not to be understood as mere stupidity or insanity.

But bad or immoral behavior.

So another way of saying all of this.

He wants to study the difference between the right way and the wrong way to live, and then see if that would help him understand the purpose of life.

E. And who can do this better then the king?

This is a definitive statement that he is making.

The word of God is declaring that no one else would be able to do this better then the present king Solomon.

As the wisest and wealthiest king, who is able to experience it all, he is in a unique position to do this.

F. Who could ever add anything to the experience of someone like Solomon?

He is the ultimate test case.

If he is not able to tell us the meaning of life, nobody else can.

What hope is there for anyone else to answer these difficult questions.

Historically, no one has since Solomon.

II.

The Conclusion

- Wisdom wins hands down.

A. Let’s take a closer look at what he says.

B. He is here lifting up wisdom to give us a glimmer of hope.

Live the right way is so much better than living the wrong way.

Maybe it is true that wisdom cannot make straight what is crooked nor can it count what is missing and increasing wisdom only increases sorrow.

But let me say this, having wisdom is still way better than the alternative.

C. Wisdom does have advantages.

It may be limited, but I have found that it is way better to be a wise person than to be an immoral fool.

How much better?

Way better.

D. What he does here is make the comparison of wisdom and foolishness and he likens it to light and darkness.

We all know that light is better then darkness especially when walking through life.

The wise can see the path as opposed to the mad fools who only stumble through life in the dark.

E.

More literally he says that wise people have eyes in their heads.

They have a good perception on life.

They make good decisions that cause them to get ahead in the race.

They can achieve a lot more in life than the foolish.

Ahh, but the immoral fools walk in darkness, they just do not see where they are going in life.

F. Let me add a bit of clarity to the immoral nature of this.

The immoral do love the darkness instead of the light.